Damon Borton has been nothing but a calm, level presence for the Marshalltown boys’ bowling team since his breakthrough to the varsity squad as a sophomore. He keeps his cards close to the vest and tries to get not too high or too low at any given moment.

Tuesday evening, though, he let himself go. A bust of emotion coinciding with a career landmark he’d never reached sent him into jubilation, running to hug his father and fist-pumping like he never had before.

After all, there’s nothing like a first-ever perfect game of 300.

“I’ve had 279 twice,” Borton said. “I honestly wasn’t paying attention to it until the eighth frame and then I realized I was that close to it, then I started to get really shaky.

“I’ve always told [his father] that I was gonna get it before he ever has.”

Borton’s 300 was a good omen for the Bobcat boys as they were able to upset a strong Ottumwa team 2,652-2,601 on Tuesday at Wayward Social, thanks to a 300-234–534 series from Borton and a strong performance in the Baker games as well.

This is the second-straight year Marshalltown has put together a perfect game, as Demitri Ferneau did so in his senior season last January. Borton saw his teammate get one and wondered what the feeling would be like — now, he gets to bask in the excitement of it.

Marshalltown led Ottumwa 1,848-1,779 after the two-game series. Following Borton in the counting scores was senior Aaron Ratte with 201-175–376, Jayden Beichley at 148-193–341, Gage Grieves with 150-155–305 and Aiden Cowan had 123-169–292.

Against a strong opponent like Ottumwa, a small lead isn’t safe in Bakers games. Marshalltown had to lean on Borton and a young group of contributors to keep up their scoring pace, and the Bulldogs could only get an 823-804 edge over the course of the five games. Marshalltown ended the match on a high note with three key strikes from Borton in the 10th frame to increase the margin of victory and make sure the Bobcats’ surprising win was secure,

Head coach Nate Clark said this can be big for the Bobcats’ youthful core to take a step forward as the season progresses, and pointed to the team’s improved job of picking up spares compared to prior meets.

“Ottumwa’s a powerhouse in bowling, so it’s a pretty big win for us,” Clark said. “Damon pretty much shouldered most of the load tonight, which is awesome, but our goal going into tonight was to miss less spares. We were eight spares better this week.”

Marshalltown girls’ bowling faced a similarly daunting challenge against a powerhouse Ottumwa girls team, but the Bobcats weren’t able to hold off a strong day from the Bulldog bowlers. Ottumwa won 2,804-2,103 and it was a show of how far the Bobcats still need to progress to get to where they want to be at come postseason play.

Leading the way again for MHS was senior Madison Pickett with 204-186-390, the only Bobcat bowler above 300. Autumn Thompson was second at 150-144-294, and Katelyn Schwartz was third with 138-121-259. Sydney May rolled 134-122-256. Devin Peterson had the final counting score at 144-90.

Head coach Dustin Peterson said the Bobcats started strong in their first games then tailed off.

“I thought we started out really well, started off strong,” Peterson said. “Our second game, I know it’s a tough team to bowl against, so you see them having a lot of success and it’s intimidating, it’s a little frustrating. I think that came into it a little bit.

“It’s pretty tough knowing you’re almost down 500 before going into Bakers.”

Bakers games have been an area of incremental growth for Marshalltown in the early stages of the season but inconsistencies popped up on Tuesday, with two poor games in the middle of the five-game series including a score of 92 in the second Baker game that included just two spares.

Scores of 158 in each of the last two Bakers were positives to work on, but there is still room for growth from the underclassmen on the roster.

Up next for both Bobcat teams is a road match against Des Moines Roosevelt on Tuesday at Air Lanes Bowling.